Real, honest musings about following Jesus, having Aspergers, and my art.

plein air art

Today, I went to Goldman, Missouri to paint this quaint old covered bridge. It was a perfect day to paint outside – gentle breezes, warm, but not hot, and best of all I found a shady spot in which to paint this. This was done in soft pastels. First, I walked all around the area to find a good view. Then, the smart phone came in handy to make a good composition, avoiding center lines. A few lines were drawn based on this, and then the gadget was put away.

I completed the drawing in white “charcoal” using Sennelier La Carte pastel board in the color sienna. This has a rough, toothy surface that grabs and hold on to the pastel. It is possible to layer it thickly, and get some really good intense, vibrant colors in there. NuPastels were used first – dark, earthy red for the shadow side of the

covered bridge, and a bright tomato red for the light side. I paid attention to the structures inside of the covered bridge, as well. Cooler, grayer greens were selected for the background trees, and warmer, higher chroma greens for the foreground trees, shrubs, and grass. I also blended and softened the edges of the background trees. Dark blue was lightly scumbled over the green for the darker shadow areas of the greenery. Finally, the large tree covering the left side of the bridge was left out, as the composition would benefit from an area of flat color to offset all the variations in the surrounding greenery and the sun dappling.

I love to paint bright, sunny scenes. The key to that is to use a strong value system, including darks. This supports the lighter yellow greens, pinks, peaches, etc in this landscape. I made a special point to use my blue greens as well for the shadowy areas. Can you see the contrast between the warm and cool areas?

A guy was riding his bike over the bridge. That would really add a lot, to put him in there on his bicycle, so I asked him to ride through again slowly, and he kindly obliged. He was very nice, and we talked for a while. He took some pictures of me painting.

I gave myself a wonderful gift for my birthday. I went to Forest Park here in St Louis

Time is Forever, 14″ x 18″, pastel on pastel board

Missouri to paint en plein air. My sister came out and joined me for part of the painting session, which was an added bonus! I painted the visitor’s center. This is one of the many charming old buildings in this town. St Louis has much beautiful, older architecture. I remember spending hours with my art teacher at age 8 learning to paint cubes, cylinders, spheres, etc. and learning how to shade them to make them look 3 dimensional. This is probably why I enjoy painting buildings to this day.

It was a perfect spring day. The sun was shining, and it was warm without being hot. I had lots of people stop by to talk to me, and they were all very gracious.

I did this painting with my painting buddy Jane. It was fall, and again in Carondelet Park, which is just a few blocks from my home. This is one of the old pavilions in the park. This was a bit more challenging than just a regular quadrangle, since there is a semi-hexagonal section in the middle. I love the older Victorian architecture in many of the city parks in St Louis.

Missouri has a very short spring, and it is mostly wet and rainy. I’ve heard many people here say we go right from winter to summer, and that’s mostly true. Yesterday was one of those idyllic spring days where it is sunny and 75 degrees, everything is colorful and luminous, and it just takes your breath away. I was very blessed (thank you Jesus) to be able to paint, even though my mother was in the hospital because she fell twice. (I went to see her last night).

Tower Grove Park is a Victorian era park that was built by Henry Shaw. It was originally planned to be a private estate. It has charming old bridges and pavilions in it. I couldn’t help but admire this little foot bridge with the beautiful pink and white dogwoods in bloom nearby.